Our Mission

The mission of the California Solar & Storage Association is to promote the widespread deployment of smart, local, clean energy technologies while supporting a wide variety of businesses that everyday build a better energy future in urban and rural communities and neighborhoods throughout the state.

We accomplish our mission through policy development, advocacy, education, networking, and business services. We show up for you when decisions are being made that will make or break your business. We work tirelessly to ensure a fair market for the customers you serve. We keep you current with timely and valuable information. And we use our extensive network to find solutions for your everyday problems so that you can do what you do best: provide clean energy solutions in your community.

We look for opportunities for collaboration while not shrinking from the fight. We are bullish about the potential for solar, energy storage, and other energy management tools that will empower consumers, transform our economy, and improve lives.

The California Solar & Storage Association has a well deserved reputation in Sacramento for smarts and savvy; staff are known for their hard work and dedication to the cause of California’s solar stakeholders.

— Rick Brown, PhD, President TerraVerde

Funding

We believe there is strength in numbers and that an association should represent all its members, large and small. Therefore, we are primarily funded through the annual membership dues of our 500+ member companies. Fundraising events such as Summerfest at Intersolar North America and Solar Battle of the Bands also help give us the resources we need to advocate on behalf of our the entire membership. For more information, check out our Annual Report.

ACTIVITIES

California's solar and storage market is driven almost entirely by state and local policies and programs. Some initiatives are broad and sweeping, like defending Net Energy Metering, while others are minute and specific, like a single impass with one local permitting official. While it is critical that we stay focused on the big issues, we cannot lose sight of the little problems that can, in the aggregate, significantly impact the cost of doing business. Therefore, we work on a variety of issues, in a variety of forums, in a variety of ways, including:

We lobby on behalf of our members in the California State Legislature. We keep an eye out for bills that could harm our market, like when investor owned utilities tried to block our access to consumers through end-of-session amendments in 2017. And, we push for new initiatives that benefit the industry at-large, such as passing AB 1414 (Friedman) to expand caps on permitting fees.

We advocate for our members before the most important state agencies, such as the California Public Utilities Commission, the Contractors State Licensing Board and the California Energy Commission. We work to pass regulations that promote safety, durability, and a competitive and accessible marketplace.

We insist upon the ethical conduct of all companies participating in the California solar and storage market, making sure that one bad apple doesn't spoil everything for everyone else. We help consumers resolve legitimate complaints and we work to establish industry standards that help us build a solid consumer-facing market.

We educate our members, proving timely information about market conditions, policy changes, and access to new programs and initiatives. Our expert staff are always just a phone call or an email away from getting tough problems resolved or complicated questions answered.

We bring people together, enabling business-to-business networking while creating a community that is bigger than the sum of its parts. We are all passionate about the work we do. It is all the sweeter to build a better future together.